Bully King - J.A. Huss Page 0,81
that kind of power. I mean, I could kick her out, but someone would drag her back in. So what’s the point?”
“How is that a threat?”
I hold her a little closer. And then decide I’m not going to tell her the rest. She has put up with so much shit these past two weeks, this news needs to wait. “Oh, hell! You know what?”
She sits up in my lap a little. “What?”
“I almost forgot. I put you in a new bedroom.”
“What? What’s wrong with my old one?”
And here, this moment right here, this is the time to be honest tonight. This is what she needs to hear. “It was too far away from mine.”
She giggles. “Hmm. I don’t know what to make of new Cooper. I don’t see you for three years, then suddenly I’m living in your house.”
“I didn’t do that.”
“Agreed. But then I have to move out of your house for two weeks to stand in for Mona at Dante’s, and you’re suddenly… what? In love with me again?”
“Again? Did I love you?”
“You tell me.”
I look up at her. I want to kiss those plump, sexy lips so bad. And then I want to kiss so many other places on her body. But I need her to hear me first. “Cadee Hunter, I have been dreaming about you since I first saw you running through the woods when I was ten.”
“Ten, huh? It took you seven years to notice me?” She laughs.
“I was a pretty dumb kid, wasn’t I?”
“Sooo stupid.”
“I’m smart now.”
“Is that so?”
“Mmm. And I did love you.” Both our smiles drop and she stares into my eyes. “I did love you, Cadee. It took me a while to figure that out that year. In fact, I’m just gonna be honest here and say I just figured it out like a week ago.”
She smiles again.
“I was wrong.”
“No, Cooper. You weren’t. You were right. Because if you didn’t take me to the clinic that day, I would be living a lie right now. Or something much, much worse.”
I know I should tell her that Lars might be on to us. At least some of it. But I’ve been waiting my whole life to feel this way about someone, and I’m tired of sharing.
I stand up, still holding onto her. And then I set her down, take her hand, and lead her out of the library.
She doesn’t ask where we’re going. I hope she doesn’t need to.
I pull her down the long hallway until we get to the foyer, then I take her up the stairs to my apartment. I debate stopping at the door. Ask her lots of things. Make her admit things too. But there’s another part of me that just wants to step up and take control. Be the hero.
And if this were Isabella, I’d do that. Because Isabella is the kind of girl who needs a hero.
But Cadee Hunter is no Isabella.
“Cadee,” I whisper, my hand on the door knob, ready to open it. “You can always say no.” I glance over my shoulder to check her expression for any hidden clues about what she’s thinking.
“I know that, Cooper. I have always known that.”
There is a lot more to be said, but if we go there, we won’t come back any time soon. So maybe taking control and being her hero is a selfish act, but I can’t seem to stop myself.
And she doesn’t protest.
I kick the door closed with my foot, then we just stand there in the dark, barely able to see each other. And then, before I can question my own motives any further, she takes the first step, pressing her body up against mine, gripping my shoulders as she leans up on her tiptoes and kisses me on the mouth.
I try to keep it slow, but my desire for her—the passion between us that we’ve been denying for so long—overtakes everything else. And I kiss her back hard. And forcefully. And unapologetically.
Her fingertips find the edge of my shirt and she starts pushing it up my chest. I whip it over my head and toss it aside, looking down as she studies my tattoo, the tip of her nail slowly tracing the K in the center of the High Court coat of arms.
“King,” she whispers.
“So they tell me.”
She lifts her eyes up to mine and we’re suddenly on pause. “Why?”
If she were any other girl, I’d push play so fast. Get on with what’s about to happen next.
But Cadee Hunter has